The Martian Affair

by on September 27, 2020 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

“I’ve got your back, John,” Cassie said.

His displays flashed with recommendations and target locks.

“Never doubted it for a second,” Christensen said and sprang back to his feet. He lined the rifle in his right hand up on one enemy quad, waited a moment for the display to flash a target lock, and pulled the trigger. The secondary barrel glowed with electromagnetic energy for an instant before spitting out a single high explosive round that shot across the Martian landscape faster than the speed of sound. The kinetic energy alone was enough to breach the armor of anything but the heaviest enemy tanks. He would have needed a proper armor-piercing warhead to take one of them out, but the unarmored quad and its rider were an entirely different matter. It was akin to beating a piñata with a sledgehammer.

The other quads opened fire and rounds bounced off his armor or sent showers of red Martian dirt into the air all around him.

Christensen rode the recoil and turned away from the exploding quad. He stepped up onto the rim of the small crater, bringing the heavy rifle in his left hand to aim at another target. He pulled that trigger, kinetic energy flashed, and his second target exploded. He rode the recoil once more and brought the first rifle down on a third target. A stream of enemy rounds smashed into it and sparks filled his view. Powerful electromagnetic coils crackled their energy all over the Martian landscape. His display flashed red warning signs as the rifle fried itself to death in his hand.

***

The Martian Affair is available at the following retailers

Amazon

Barnes and Noble

Apple Books

Kobo

Smashwords

 Comment 

The Martian Affair

by on September 26, 2020 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

We were alone in 2080. It was a new age of space exploration that would forever change humanity. Our probes traveled to every planet in the system, and manned missions blanketed the inner system. Our permanent colonies in Earth orbit, on Luna, and Mars pointed us to a new future in the stars.

Then an unknown objected entered Martian space, crashed through a Chinese satellite, and impacted on the Martian surface. Official reports called it a random piece of space junk. Conspiracy theorists claimed it was everything from a precursor to alien invasion to an embarrassing industrial accident.

Time marched on, and a legion of questions about the incident were never answered. Mars became a booming center of new industry, and eventually a comfortable home for humanity as we terraformed the surface. We forgot about the incident entirely as the years turned into decades and then centuries.

But now we know the truth, thanks to the recently declassified diaries of the man who watched that object arrive with his naked eyes. His name is Sergeant John Christensen, United States Marines Corps. This is his story.

***

The Martian Affair is available at the following retailers

Amazon

Barnes and Noble

Apple Books

Kobo

Smashwords

 Comment 

The Republic of Texas

by on September 25, 2020 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

The Republic of Texas did not have a strong navy when they came into being. They did have some very rich ports, but the major United States Navy bases had been on the East or West Coasts over the last century. So Texas had a very few ships in their small navy. But they had large Army, Marine, Air Force, and Space Force bases all over. It is perhaps no surprise that it was the Texas Space Force that forged their path into space when the time came. The Texas stereotype of rugged individualism was certainly more at home with the fighter-jock mentality the Space Force had inherited from the parent it rarely recognized. So while other nations sent up teams to explore space, Texas sent their very best individuals to see what was up there. And while some sent teams on one-way trips to planets or moons, with no plans to ever bring them back, the Texans brought their intrepid explorers home to smile at the crowds, shake hands with the politicians, and give candy to babies. It was not the most efficient way to explore space, but Texas had the natural resources to do it, and an ego to match. Which explains why the Texas Space Force and Navy developed the way they did in the centuries that followed.

 Comment 

The Republic of Texas

by on September 24, 2020 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

The Republic of Texas sent Navy and Marine elements to join the American relief fleet the new Federal government sent to aid Australia. They helped stop the Chinese in Indonesia, and prepared for the full-scale war that would soon break out there. Then the Rogue AI nest in Singapore came to everybody’s attention. The Singapore Collective had plans for humanity, and those plans would not have left enough of us alive to complain. So those brave boys and girls worked with the Chinese, the Russians, and everybody else to end that threat once and for all. The world had come closer to destruction at Singapore than it had since Cuba, nearly a century earlier. So the world took a collective breath, and the assembled militaries of every great power returned home. The Texans came home to a heroes’ welcome, and the Republic began looking to space once more. Not that they had ever truly stopped, you understand, but the effective truce on Earth between the Western Alliance, China, and Russia had changed everything. Space was the future again, and it would be where the great powers would once again fight for dominance. Texas was never going to miss a fight like that.

 Comment 

The Republic of Texas

by on September 23, 2020 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

The Republic of Texas’ greatest threats in the early years included those who did not recognize its legitimacy. Large cities like Dallas or Austin claimed every level of its government was fraudulent, and continued to send their own “legitimate” representatives to the old Federal government. Rather than fight them, the Republic declared them to be “In Anarchy,” pulled its resources out of the cities, and simply waited for them to wise up and join the future. But many agency headquarters were in those cities. Many of the agency heads followed the cities’ leads and ordered their own people not to recognize the Republic. This created a large number of moles in the Republic bureaucracy, people willing and able to use their positions to sabotage Republic operations at any time or place. They were an active threat for decades, and numerous “public servants” went to prison after their leaks or other operations endangered or cost Texan lives. Many believe some of these moles still exist today, working for whatever is left of the old government as it continues to hide and scheme.

 Comment